Podcast

The Brian Lehrer Show

Episodes

Sep 13 2019

Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics and former EPA Region 2 administrator, helps us sort through all the types of plastics in our lives, and understand exactly how they are making an impact on climate change.
As we join other news outlets for #CoveringClimateNow the week of September 16, we’ll be talking to experts and our listeners about real solutions to climate change. And we’re challenging ourselves, our colleagues, and everybody to see, “How low can you go?” when it comes to single-use plastic. Take Brian’s challenge and follow along with Brian all week as we notice/track/reduce/quit our use of single-use plastic. Enter at any level: keep a log, take a picture of all the single-use plastic from your week, or the substitutes or hacks you find to #PlasticChallenge. Use that hashtag on Instagram and Twitter with pictures of things like:
The non-plastic cutlery you keep at your desk;
The barista refilling your reusable coffee cup
Your WNYC eco-tote [or other plastic bag alternative] in action;
The log you’ve kept of all the plastic you’ve used or avoided using this week;
The pile of discarded single-use plastic you’ve kept just to see how big it gets;
The glass jar you take to the bulk-goods store;
The single-use plastic you simply can’t do without, and why;
And call in to the show with our stories of the ways you #PlasticChallenge!
We know not using plastic won’t solve the climate crisis, but just maybe taking action in defense of the planet could become a habit…
Instagram: Use the hashtag #PlasticChallenge and tag us [@brianlehrershow] and look for our stories and posts with some of our tips and hacks throughout the week. And tune in every day for conversations about real-world solutions for the climate crisis....more

Sep 13 2019

Binyamin Appelbaum, who writes about economics and business for the editorial page of The New York Times and is the author of The Economists' Hour (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), argues that the post-War II policy of relying on economists (and their emphasis on efficiency) to run the Federal Reserve and the Dept of Treasury has been bad for democracy.

Sep 13 2019

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.
Malcolm Gladwell on Stranger Danger (First) | Fall Season Must-Sees (Starts at 29:20) | Brooklyn's Borough President on NYPD Morale and Solving the Rat Crisis (Starts at 47:00)
If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Sep 13 2019

Sep 12 2019

Nicholas Lemann, Columbia Journalism School professor, New Yorker staff writer, and the author of Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) traces the roots of our current transactional culture back to its mid-century roots.

Sep 12 2019

New Jersey State Senator Shirley Turner and Rachel Roubein, healthcare reporter for Politico, discuss legislative efforts at the state and federal levels to combat teen vaping, including a proposed ban on e-cigarettes in New Jersey.

Sep 12 2019

Andrew Prokop, senior politics correspondent for Vox, previews the third Democratic presidential debate on Thursday night.
Listening to a 2005 exchange between then senator @JoeBiden and Harvard professor @ewarrenand on @BrianLehrer and the way Biden is speaking to Warren is INFURIATING.
— Colin_Bites🌈 (@Colin_Bites) September 12, 2019
.@BrianLehrer Warren hasn't spelled out her healthcare plan yet--it's not on her site. Likely sees probs w how Bernie's would be paid for.
— erica rowell (@indieflicks) September 12, 2019
.@BrianLehrer Very good that you played that full Biden-Warren clip.Biden's sexism &amp; loyalty to credit card co's was obvious: constant interruptions &amp; sarcasm. Warren is scathing as Senator but via rudeness &amp; interruptions — she relies on content, not power, to make points.
— Susan Sternberg (@swmstn2) September 12, 2019...more

Sep 12 2019

Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President, discusses the latest city news, including an apparent slowdown in NYPD arrests and tickets after Officer Pantaleo's firing and a potential new solution to curb NYC's rat problem.

Sep 11 2019

Heather Hurlburt, columnist at New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer, and Initiative Director at New America, Bobby Ghosh, Bloomberg Opinion editor, and Fred Kaplan, Slate's War Stories columnist and the author of Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War (Simon & Schuster, 2016) talk about the military legacy of 9/11, the war on terror, and the Middle East.

Sep 11 2019

Mary Marshall Clark, Director of the Center for Oral History Research at Columbia University, and the driving force behind the September 11th Oral Histories Project, talks about how 9/11 exists in the minds of those who lived through it, as told to her through thousands of hours of oral histories.
Sad to realize a generation never knew the tranquil world existed before #September11th. I’m not sure we can ever convey the horrors we witnessed that day, in part because they’ve never know the sense of safety we took for granted before the attacks.
— Albert Fox Cahn (@CahnLawNY) September 11, 2019
I watched the jet hit the Pentagon/sister was stuck in Manhattan. We fell completely into the terrorists trap: we overreacted, we betrayed our "values", we violated untold norms &amp; laws &amp; we have accepted an unprecedented surveillance state.
— (((Nathan))) (@ntableman) September 11, 2019
Caller Matthew was 13 on 9/11. His father was killed."My teacher brought me to the office to tell me... my father worked on 104th floor.""Today I drove my 4 y/o son to school. He's named Joseph, after my father. It's remarkable to see happiness... It's been a long journey. "
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) September 11, 2019
Adjunct professor at Baruch college decided not to hold class on her birthday, so many of her students went to work (at the WTC). She lost 11 students that day.She doesn't celebrate her birthday anymore, but her son recently told her "It was your birthday first."
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) September 11, 2019...more

Sep 10 2019

Dina Nayeri, award-winning novelist who emigrated to the U.S. from Iran as a child, now based in London, and the author of The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You (Catapult, 2019), talks about her first non-fiction book about her own history, and that of other asylum-seekers.

Sep 10 2019

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing a new rule that would make it more difficult to bring discrimination claims under the Fair Housing Act. Elaine Gross, president of ERASE Racism, a Syosset-based nonprofit argues the change would lead to more discriminatory housing practices in Long Island, one of the most racially segregated regions in the country.

Sep 10 2019

Nicholas Fandos, New York Times reporter covering Congress, previews the congressional session ahead, including the first congressional vote related to the potential impeachment of President Donald Trump, which is set to take place this Thursday.

Sep 09 2019

Brad Smith, Microsoft president and the author (with Carol Ann Browne) of Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age (Penguin Press, 2019), argues that the leaders of the tech companies need to take responsibility for the downsides of their products, as well as profits.

Sep 09 2019

Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer at The New Yorker, host of the podcast "Revisionist History", and the author of many books, including his latest Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know (Little, Brown and Company, 2019), examines some recent controversies and tragedies where he finds a common thread -- our inability to understand strangers. From Bernie Madoff to Sandra Bland, he argues we need to do better.

Sep 09 2019

The CDC suggested that people stop vaping until public health officials can get a better handle on an epidemic of lung disease that has sickened as many as 450 people, with three deaths, spanning over 30 states. Ana Ibarra, journalist covering health care for Kaiser Health News, answers your questions and brings the latest on what we know, and what we still don't understand.

Sep 09 2019

Cenk Uygur, host and founder of The Young Turks and co-founder of the Justice Democrats, previews the next debate among the ten qualifying Democrats and talks about the moderate vs progressive divide in the party.
@brianlehrer It's wonderfully refreshing to hear some passionate, articulated progressivism from @cenkuygur this morning. He might be brash, but he's not wrong.It's time to actually stand up and FIGHT for causes instead of tiptoeing "against" Trump.
— goob (@goobisgoofy) September 9, 2019...more

Sep 06 2019

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.
Chancellor Carranza on the New School Year (First) | The Language of Persuasion (Starts at 30:41) | Football Feminist (Starts at 50:51)
If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Sep 06 2019

Julian Castro, former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama and presidential candidate, discusses his 2020 presidential campaign.
Best part of @JulianCastro on @BrianLehrer show is his focus on the issues outside daily media coverage. It's refreshing to hear a candidate discuss serious policy (e.g. climate refugees, affordable housing) that isn't related to the administration's most recent scandal.
— Non Hand Banner (@DiaryOfABrendan) September 6, 2019...more

Sep 06 2019

Sep 06 2019

Bill de Blasio, New York City Mayor, takes calls from listeners and discusses this week in NYC.
It is almost impossible to move failing schools without uplifting failing communities and providing skilled staff
— JYC Reg (@jycr10) September 6, 2019
Caller to the @brianlehrer show threating to leave the city for the 'burbs because she has no faith her rising middle school student will get into a "good" school. Her family is middle class & she asks the mayor why the city doesn't want families like hers here [in the city].
— Tiffany Winbush (@TiffWinbush) September 6, 2019...more

Sep 05 2019

Even Americans who get paid time off from their jobs generally don’t take all of it. A record 768 million US vacation days were wasted in 2018 says the U.S. Travel Association.
Listeners call in and explain why they didn't use their vacation days this year, and where they would go if they could.

Sep 05 2019

Nancy Solomon, managing editor of New Jersey Public Radio, and Gwynne Hogan, WNYC health reporter and associate producer, talk about the latest "Ask Governor Murphy" and how the state government is responding to Newark's water crisis.

Sep 04 2019

Tonight's democratic presidential climate change forum on CNN is being framed by a real life disaster — Hurricane Dorian. First up this morning: three interviews about the Dorian emergency, and the larger climate conversation.
First, Patricia Mazzei, Miami bureau chief for The New York Times, on the latest damage wrought by the Category 5 hurricane. Then Robinson Meyer, staff writer for The Atlantic, digs in on the differences between the democratic candidate's climate proposals, and finally presidential candidate, Tim Ryan, on his own plan to fight climate change and how he sees a path to the presidency even though he didn't make the third debate.
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Sep 04 2019

Maya Wiley, co-chair of the School Diversity Advisory Group's executive committee and NBC News and MSNBC Legal Analyst, argues in favor of phasing out "gifted and talented" programs in New York City order to help desegregate the school system.

Sep 04 2019

Yasmeen Serhan, London-based staff writer for The Atlantic covering Europe, discusses the latest Brexit news now that the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost the majority seat in the House of Commons.
Confused about the latest chapter in Brexit? Tune in now for an update, and everything you need to know with @YasmeenSerhan https://t.co/Ju9qDpfSqO
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) September 4, 2019

Sep 04 2019

Don McPherson, an All-America quarterback at Syracuse University who went on to play professionally in the NFL and Canada shares insights from his new book, You Throw Like a Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity (Edge of Sports, 2019).

Sep 03 2019

With election season upon us, Lee Hartley Carter, president of Maslansky + Partners, a language strategy firm, and the author of Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter (TarcherPerigee, 2019), offers insight into the way language persuades the unconvinced.

Sep 03 2019

New York City Schools Chancellor, Richard Carranza, talks about the start of the school year.
To parents, Carranza cautions that gifted and talented programs will not end this year and that the department still needs to have "public" conversations – which he acknowledges could get difficult — on what should come next for G&T.
— Reema Amin (@reemadamin) September 3, 2019
Let's start by dropping that phrase "gifted and talented" - it's so clunky and demeaning to others. @BrianLehrer @DOEChancellor
— Martha K Hoffman (@marthakhoffman) September 3, 2019
In District 15 with new integration plan for middle schools, a @BrianLehrer caller says she has twins - and one is going to a school closeby and the other four stops away. @DOEChancellor says he's looking at the issue of siblings. Caller says she supports the integration plan.
— Jessica Gould (@ByJessicaGould) September 3, 2019...more

Sep 03 2019

In July 2018, after spending 21 days in solitary confinement at a detention center, Efraín Romero de la Rosa committed suicide. José Olivares, journalist and associate producer for The Takeaway, and Travis Mannon, video producer for The Intercept, talk about their exclusive Takeaway and The Intercept investigation which found that correctional staff at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center skirted rules when dealing with a migrant with mental illness.

Sep 03 2019

Susan Page, Washington bureau chief of USA TODAY, discusses the latest in national political news and previews CNN's Climate Crisis Town Hall where 10 democratic candidates will lay out their plans to tackle global warming.
If you're paying attention to the climate proposals of the 2020 candidates, what are you focusing on and who do you like?If you're more in the weeds on this issue than the most of us, what should we be listening for in CNN's climate crisis town hall?212 433 9692 or TWEET!
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) September 3, 2019
@BrianLehrer to solve climate change we must be talking about removing carbon from the atmosphere not just permitting future emissions. This means reforestation, better soil management and engineered Direct Air Capture (DAC) Machi was that chemically Capture Carbon
— Christopher Neidl (@cfneidl) September 3, 2019
Bernie Sanders has the only proposal that has a chance of matching the challenge posed by climate change. No other candidate measures up.
— #ClosetheConcentrationCamps🌹 (@Fortunatebri) September 3, 2019
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Aug 30 2019

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.
What Did You Read this Summer? (First) | Hercules as Community Theater (Starts at 18:27) | Your Summer Bucket List (Starts at 31:32)
If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

Aug 29 2019

Christopher Werth, senior editor at the WNYC Narrative Unit, talks about his investigation that found lead contamination from peeling paint in some NYC classrooms, triggering further tests and a clean-up in advance of the start of school. Plus Kathryn Garcia, City of New York Department of Sanitation Commissioner and senior advisor for Citywide Lead Prevention, talks about the clean up effort and answers listeners' questions.
My child is not in a New York City public school for several reasons but when I read over 1800 schools may have hazardous amounts of lead, I feel confident my decisions was justified. @BrianLehrer #wnyc
— Damisi Inc (@Damisi_Inc) August 29, 2019...more